JUDGING FAIRLY Part 3

We have thus far discussed three of the four categories of people with
regard to the command to judge fairly. The first three were the righteous
man, the average man, and the unrighteous man. The fourth category is the
stranger, a person whom we do not know and therefore cannot ascertain his
level of righteousness. Because we do not know him there is no logical
way of judging his actions. Consequently there is no obligation to judge
his actions favorably. Nonetheless it is commendable to give him the
benefit of the doubt when he does a dubious act. It is always
praiseworthy to look for a positive interpretation of the actions of
others. Moreover, doing so constitutes a fulfillment of the command to
love thy neighbor as yourself: This commandment tells us that we should
treat and view others in the same way that we would like to be treated
ourselves. We would surely want onlookers to judge our actions in a
favorable light.

Last week we mentioned that there are two aspects to judging people - one
is to ascertain whether they did a certain action or not. The second is
to judge their motives for doing such an action. This applies just as
much to a person that we do not know as to a close acquaintance. With
regards to the first category we have seen how we are not expected to be
naÔve and presume everyone is righteous. However, with regard to the
second we are expected to avoid passing judgment on the person for what
they have done and assume that we are better than them.

This concept is found throughout Jewish thought - we can never be sure who
is a better person in the eyes of Hashem. Why is this? The answer is
that each person is judged according to the amount of effort he exerts at
becoming a better person. One person may have been brought up in a home
of righteous people and been given every opportunity to become a righteous
person - for him it may be very easy to go through the motions without
much effort and attain a high level of righteousness. However, if he has
not exerted himself much then he does not receive a great deal of credit
for his actions.

In contrast a person who was born in into a family of murderers, for
example, will face a much greater challenge to attain any level of
righteousness - for him to refrain from killing people is a great test and
if he overcomes it then he may be deserving of more reward than his
righteous fellow.

Based on this concept it is clear that we can never pass judgment on the
behavior of others even if we know that they have committed incorrect
actions.